The positive rate on Tuesday was 5.51 percent out of 197,402 tests and the reproduction rate, or R value, was 1.91, meaning that almost two people are being infected by each person with the disease.

In this context, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health services, acknowledged that “they have no control” over the pandemic, although she said that they are working so hard to confront it. “We are trying as much as possible to reduce infections and halt this fifth wave, but it will be a high wave,” she stressed.

Likewise, she denied press reports on government´s alleged intentional strategy to allow the spread of omicron variant – more contagious but less virulent – to achieve herd immunity.

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